I was sitting in a Tim Hortons when the PPP guys started tweeting about Nick Kypreos' tweet. I'm sure in time we'll simply refer to it as "The Tweet".

Kypreos tweeted about Bryan McCabe going to the Rangers, and TSN's Darren Dreger quickly followed that by tweeting no deal was done. That led Kyper (I prefer Kypper) to tweet "I'm confident it will get done. Those fuckers at tsn try to discredit me all the time. I'm really pissed! As always, thanks for yo...".

It's February in Toronto. That can only mean one thing. It's time for the Leafs to tease us by flirting with a playoff drive, only to come up a little short.

I watched last night's game against the Habs and found myself cheering as if it was a playoff game. I wanted that one, almost as badly as I wanted Kessel to get a hat trick.

The big win over the hateful Habs has us 4 points out of the playoffs with only Buffalo and Carolina in the way. Check out these hopeful standings.

Normally, when we make our February drive to the promised land only to come up short, we screw ourselves. We miss the playoffs and lose out on a lottery pick in the draft. This season, there's absolutely no downside to this tease. We're only screwing the Bruins.

I'm a Rogers digital cable customer. I'm not sure what my options are, so I always end up with Rogers. If you know a good alternative in Toronto, I'm all ears...

Swiss Chalet has bought an entire channel from Rogers, so I'll be able to enjoy 12 roasters turning on a spit 24/7 on channel 208. Has it really come to this? There are so many open channels that a company can buy one to promote their product or services all day, every day.

I don't what ticks me off more, the fact Rogers can sell a station to promote a chicken restaurant or how damn brilliant this campaign is. Its success will only result in more useless channels hocking everything from prescription drugs to replica watches.

Some of you have been dropping by for almost nine years. Some of you just found out this place existed. I figured it's time for a general state of the union address, a.k.a. an entry to test that everything is functioning properly.

At about 5:30 pm yesterday, a disk failure brought this site offline. It's been rebuilt, with minimal damage, but I won't know everything is cool until I publish an entry.

You may have noticed posting frequency is far less than it's been in the past. There are two reasons: I'm crazy busy lately and I'm aiming for quality over quantity.

There will be no entries for the sake of posting (except for this one). If I deem nothing blog-worthy, I'll skip a day. There will be no "what I had for breakfast" entries unless it was a really, really good breakfast. It's going to have to be one helluva breakfast. Damn, now I'm hungry...

I'm very interested in your feedback. What entries do you hate and which ones do you enjoy most? Be honest... I promise not to cry.

I just analyzed the statistics for visitors to this site in January 2010 and January 2011.

In January 2010, here were the top four web browsers used by you:

Internet Explorer

Firefox

Safari

Chrome

In January 2011, here were the top four web browsers used by you:

Internet Explorer

Firefox

Safari

Chrome

You'll note the order remains the same, but there were significant changes when you compare the actual visits year-over-year. Here's the change from 2010 to 2011:

Although still the top dog, Internet Explorer visits fell by 14%, despite the fact overall traffic over this period increased by 17.95%. Firefox traffic was virtually unchanged, which means large increases by Safari and Chrome made up the IE difference.

Canada's inability to produce a single excellent men's singles tennis player is mind boggling. There have been a few decent female players, and at least a couple of excellent doubles players, but not one male player who could even upset their way into a semi-final match. The highest ranking Canadian male in singles play was Andrew Sznajder who somehow got ranked #46 in September 1989. You're forgiven if you've forgotten about Andrew Sznajder.

Today, Canada's Milos Raonic reached his second straight final in an ATP Tour event. A year ago he was ranked 361, now he'll crack the top 50. That's pretty impressive.

Kaberle is now a member of the Boston Bruins. The Leafs will receive prospect centre Joe Colborne, the Bruins’ first-round pick and a conditional second-round pick in 2012 if Kaberle - an unrestricted free agent this summer – signs a new contract in Boston or if they make the Stanley Cup final.

I just looked it up... "Kaberle" appears in 207 entries on this blog, excluding this one. He was a very likable, solid performer for over a decade and I already miss the SOB. But as I learned from the excellent HBO series Six Feet Under, everything ends.

As we discussed when Mike Richards was hired by BCE Inc., The FAN 590 will have some competition in this market when a second all-sports radio station debuts later this month. Personally, I love this move, as the 1050 frequency was wasting away with a simulcast of CP24 and a little sports radio competition can only make things more interesting for us fans.

Essentially, the TSN ~ Sportsnet battle will now extend beyond the television to Toronto radio. Fun!

It will be interesting to hear the full TSN RADIO 1050 lineup, and final changes to The FAN 590's lineup in response. Maybe I'll finally get my own show...

I can't remember the last time I wrote about the Toronto Raptors. It's been that kind of forgettable season. We're awful.

We might be awful, but tonight there's a good reason for casual fans to get excited again. Chris Bosh is back in town with his Miami Heat teammates to face the Raps at the ACC and he's going to get the Vince Carter treatment. He's getting the Vince Carter treatment because he deserves the Vince Carter treatment.

Admittedly, I defended his Raptor career when he signed with Miami and didn't see the Carter comparison right away, but I've since seen the light.

Appearing on the FAN 590, Bryan Colangelo said Bosh wasn't the same player toward the end of last year. In essence, he quit on us.

Colangelo said on Monday's show that whether Bosh was "mentally checked out or, you know, just wasn't quite into it down the stretch, he wasn't the same guy. And I think everybody saw that, just no one wanted to acknowledge it."

As you've likely heard by now, Brian Burke has traded Kris Versteeg to the Philadelphia Flyers for first and third round draft picks in 2011. You can put a fork in Versteeg's Maple Leaf tenure at 53 games. He just arrived via trade on July 1.

Back then, Versteeg cost us Viktor Stalberg and prospects Chis DiDomenico and Philippe Paradis. So, really.. when you think about it.. we gave up Viktor Stalberg and prospects Chis DiDomenico and Philippe Paradis for a first and third round draft pick and Bill Sweatt. Would you make that trade? I would.

Late last night, Arcade Fire upset Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, Eminem and Katy Perry to win the most prestigious Grammy Award, for album of the year. Most people, it seems, hadn't heard of Arcade Fire.

Howard Stern is new to Twitter, tweeting away at @HowardStern, but as with other media channels, he instantly seems to get it.

Yesterday afternoon, Stern found his movie, Private Parts, playing in New York. In real-time, while Private Parts aired, he essentially added a DVD commentary via Twitter. It was fascinating for this long-time fan.

Here's a taste of what you missed. For the rest, you know where to go.

What a great use of Twitter. Other tweeting celebrities should take notes.

Chuck Tanner was 82. He managed four teams from 1970 to 1988, posting an overall record of 1,352-1,381 over 19 seasons. He's best known for leading the “We Are Family” Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979 to one of the greatest comebacks in World Series history.

A mere five months after Andrew Krystal took over the as morning host at The FAN 590, he's out. The experiment has come to an end.

As tame as Landry and Stellick were, Krystal took the opposite approach, seemingly working very hard at being shocking. He was clearly aiming at the kids, and this 36-year old couldn't stomach most of it. He lost me, and I'm guessing he bled out. This is a pretty significant move for a guy who just signed a 3-year contract.

Our Toronto Maple Leafs have sent defenceman Francois Beauchemin to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Joffrey Lupul, defenceman Jake Gardiner and a conditional Ducks fourth-round pick in 2012.

Lupul, 27, has five goals and eight assists in 26 games with the Ducks this season. The Alberta native was originally Anaheim’s first choice, seventh overall, in the 2002 Entry Draft. He has 117 goals and 121 assists for 238 points in 421 career NHL games with the Ducks, Oilers and the Flyers.

YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time.

I don't think a month goes by that I don't reference the Whisper 2000 at least once. These Whisper 2000 ads were epic.

This one doesn't include the awesome clip of the kid eavesdropping on the girls in the cafeteria talking about how cute he is, which was the best of the bunch, but it's still a pretty sweet collection.

James Reimer has played 9 games in his NHL career. He's sporting a sweet .940 SV% and a fantastic 1.96 GAA. You may have heard he recorded his first shutout the other night over Carolina.

He's 5-3 for a pretty bad team, and that's earned him the nickname King James. He's our latest next great hope, following Jiri Tlusty, Justin Pogge, Nazem Kadri, The Monster and some guy named Phil Kessel. I haven't given up on that last guy yet...

When the Leafs drop the puck in Buffalo tonight, all eyes will be on the 22-year old Winnipeg native between the pipes. In a Leafs-crazy city, desperate for hope and something to cheer for, James Reimer already owns this town. Owning this city is easy... it only took King James 9 games.

Denise contacted me via Twitter last night, and I asked her to write something for this blog. Here's what Denise sent me via email.

So CTV has done it again! It's recent takeover of "The New Flow 93.5 fm" URBAN radio station in Toronto has RUTHLESSLY FIRED OVER 75% of the DEDICATED FLOW STAFF! Today 36 out of 50 ppl were told they were unemployed as of today!

Are we going to sit by & let this media monopoly happen so we only have 2 points of view in the media -- CTVGLOBEMEDIA/BCE & ROGERS??

Are we going to sit by & let the CRTC get away with systematically deconstructing the hip hop community in Canada by restricting its airwaves to hip hop music from all over the world INCLUDING the much touted "CANADIAN CONTENT"??

Enough of this stranglehold over OUR AIRWAVES - including the Internet & Satellite - it's time to step up and organize to stop this slow, stealth censorship mission!!!

That is exactly what this is! It looks to be a stealth move by CTV, et al to continue gobbling up Canadian media outlets (to the point where local television stations are in danger) until we, as free thinking Canadians who have bragged about the transparency of our government and objectivity of our media, are reduced to being exposed to only TWO POINTS OF VIEW -- CTV's and ROGERS'!

This is so far beyond the issue of helping to destroy Canada's teetering hip hop industry, although, you must question the timing of such a move by CTV. They chose the second day of Black History Month to summarily FIRE 36 out of 50 employees at Toronto's #1 "Urban" (meaning hip hop/rap) radio station serving a large black community demographic.

It deeply saddens me, a public relations and government relations consultant retiree, to see today's society as a bunch of sheep needing prodding by its shepherd, for in the 1960s and 1970s, people STOOD UP and DEMONSTRATED in various NON-VIOLENT ways to end such monopolies and fight against censorship.

It is a crying shame to see today's youth (who the FORMER FLOW 93.5 fm staff serviced HAPPILY EVERY SINGLE DAY OF YEAR), sit by and let this happen. Where is the passion in today's society that permeated the very air we breathed in the 60s and 70s??

Shame, shame, shame on CTV and shame, shame, shame on anyone who doesn't share this note and boycott THE NEW NEW FLOW 93.5 FM!!!

Our friends at the CRTC have passed new regulations that will force Internet Service Providers to switch to usage-based billing. I'm a web-savvy guy, and I find it all complicated. Essentially, we're talking low data throughput caps and price overage fees.

My current plan with Rogers allots me 60GB / month. I've seen that "you're 75% through your cap" warning a few times, followed by notice I'll be charged when I exceed the damn cap. Rogers knows what they're doing. They sell digital cable services, and most of that data transfer is multimedia that directly competes with their offerings. The same is true with Bell. The conflict of interest here is sickening.

With streaming video services improving, this is awful news for consumers. Even without hitting up the torrent networks, I'm hitting the cap today, with several devices online. There a few laptops, a desktop, an iPod touch, an iPad, the Wii, a couple of Nintendo DS's and who knows what will enter the house next. It all adds up, especially with streaming audio and video. And remember, I'm not even talking about large downloads.

Freddie P is linking to an article that suggests Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered his government on Tuesday to review this CRTC decision. I'm not Harper's biggest fan, but good on him for this. The decision stinks and we Canadians deserve better.

I'm tired of living in a digital ghetto. Please visit stopthemeter.ca and send a clear message to Ottawa.

The White Stripes have officially broken up. Their site is down right now, but earlier it contained this paragraph about their breakup.

The reason is not due to artistic differences or lack of wanting to continue, nor any health issues as both Meg and Jack are feeling fine and in good health. It is for a myriad of reasons, but mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band and have it stay that way.

Have you heard? It's going to snow tonight. The local media is ecstatic. 680 News, for example, opened their Storm Centre.

It was about seven years ago that I first wondered aloud as to what opening their Storm Centre would entail.

I wonder what setting up the Storm Centre entails exactly. As far as I can tell, it's business as usual with more time devoted to the top story of the morning, our little snow storm. Media outlets like 680News thrive when their listeners in are in a state of fear. Listening to them you'd have thought we were all buried and trapped in our homes living off the food and drink we have stored away. In reality, it's not that bad. Really.

The Storm Centre guy back then was Scott Simpson. I had a chat with Scott Simpson and got an exclusive inside look at the 680 News Storm Centre. We'll call this "680 News Storm Centre Exposed", because that sounds a lot more exciting. The words below belong to Scott.

Setting up the storm centre basically entails somebody telling me, "Simpson, you're on standby for Storm Centre tomorrow." That means I try to get to bed early, but end up tossing and turning until 4:15am when I call the newsroom ... I say, "It's not even snowing. The Weather Network says we're only getting 5cm." They say "Well, it's hit Chicago and they've cancelled a ton of flights. Come on in, you're our man."

That's about it. I get in, I see if any schools are closed, I find out what's up at the airport, maybe call Gary Welsh from Toronto Transportation to see what gear they're sending out, load up the admin side of the web site, and climb on the news wheel ... There's no time to run back and forth into and out of the control room, so I sit at a desk (the proverbial "Storm Centre" which, internally, is dialed up as CHFINEWS, even though they haven't done CHFI news from the newsroom in ... erm ... well, I don't think they ever did. Legacy tech, natch.) and broadcast from there, getting up now and then for fluid management.

So I sit there at the desk, and every half hour they throw to me, I read a sponsor or two, and try to tell it like it is .... sometimes it's a brain-bending five-hour whirlwind of bus cancellations and school closures (how many Montessori schools *are* there in the GTA, and why can't they get their kids to class when it snows?!) though, thankfully, most days I end up saying "Well, there's no big storm here ... but if you're travelling by air, you're screwed." I would rather be the voice of "everything's fine, get out and live your lives!" than the voice of doom and gloom when there's nothing to freak out about. I don't want to get a reputation as Chicken Little. If anything, I downplay the severity of what's going on out of the fact that I don't drive.

I saw Bowling For Columbine and some other stuff that has convinced me that keeping listeners "in a state of fear" is a terrible thing to do. I also don't like "neighbourhoods in a state of shock" or "outraged residents" or such things. I have two rules: tell the truth, and never be boring. They rarely clash, because the truth well told is usually a really interesting story.

There you have it, a Toronto Mike exclusive. Since Scott's left, I think they've gone all "state of fear" on us. Now be afraid... very afraid. White substance is falling from the heavens!

The last of Egypt's main Internet service providers, the Noor Group, went offline yesterday. Without internet, Egyptians are being muted, leaving "The Papyrus Revolution" without a voice.

This past weekend, Google and Twitter introduced a speak-to-tweet service, allowing Egyptians to tweet using just a voice connection.

It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.